Girl Scout Leadership Luncheon

In April this year, I was invited as a special guest to make a speech and present an award at the Girl Scout Leadership Luncheon in Westchester. The speech was about my Girl Scout experience, and I was to present a Community Service award to a leader in the community. I was to make the speech in front of about 200 people. I have been on stage many times to perform my Indian classical dances, but I had never made a speech before. I was pretty nervous.

When it was time for me to make my speech, my hands were sweating. I had practiced at home, but that was only in front of my family. When I was making my speech, everyone was looking at me, but with interested faces. It made me feel more relaxed. At the end when I sat back down, I felt satisfied with what I had done. When the luncheon was over, people said I had done a great job. At first, I didn’t believe them, but then my mom showed me my video, and I realized that I had done my best. This experience made me more open to the world and more confident.

When I had received the invitation letter for the event, I had immediately told my mom that I wasn’t going to do it. However, my mom encouraged me, and I went ahead with it. The lesson I learned from this experience was that you can’t judge something until you experience it. I had a great time there! It was inspiring to hear people’s stories about how Girl Scouts had shaped them. I got to meet important leaders like the CEO of Girl Scouts. A TV celebrity who was a Girl Scout in her childhood spoke to us about her girl scout experience through a video recording. The food was really good and the country club setting with beautiful table decorations made it an experience of a lifetime for me. I was also interviewed on the radio, which was a first-time excitement too.

Girl Scouts is the chance to take healthy new risks you’ve never taken before. If something new is given to you, you should try it. Those experiences can bring you places!